Haitian Refugees Sent To U.s. Base In Cuba

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The U.S. diverted hundreds of Haitian boat people Wednesday to a tent city at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, but hundreds more poured out of their troubled nation.

In six days Coast Guard cutters and Navy warships have intercepted more than 3,300 Haitians fleeing economic collapse and political repression in their military dominated country.

The exodus, including at least 521 Haitians intercepted by 28 vessels Wednesday, has swamped U.S. refugee processing centers and forced the Clinton administration to open a tent city at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Three Coast Guard cutters docked there Wednesday with hundreds of refugees, said Coast Guard spokesman Jeff Hall.

During a previous flood of refugees in early 1992, Guantanamo at one point held nearly 12,000 Haitians, prompting complaints by human rights activists of unsanitary, overcrowded conditions. That exodus led President George Bush in May 1992 to order the direct repatriation of all Haitian boat people, without determining whether they were fleeing persecution.

President Clinton announced last month that he would reverse that policy. He ordered the opening of a shipboard refugee center off Jamaica on June 16 and promised hearings to determine who qualified for asylum.

The surge in refugees since then has thrown Clinton's new policy into question. It also puts more pressure on Washington to take swift action, perhaps even military intervention, to restore Haiti's elected civilian government, which was ousted by the military in 1991.

In Washington, Defense Secretary William Perry said sanctions against Haiti aimed at forcing army leaders from power are working and should continue.

Some of the 168 boat people repatriated Wednesday vowed to take to the sea again soon.

"Maybe next week," said Fritz Pierre, 24, as he sat aboard a Haitian Red Cross minibus.

Some Haitians picked up at sea said they had heard the U.S. was using Coast Guard cutters to ferry Haitians directly to Miami.

Two boats carrying 26 Haitians landed at Jamaica Wednesday and were under Red Cross care. Small groups of Haitians have fled toward Jamaica, about 100 miles west of Haiti, and some were granted asylum.

Clinton urged Haitians to stay home. He said-as did spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers on Wednesday-that Haitians have just as good a chance achieving political asylum through a U.S. consular program inside Haiti as by heading to sea.

But percentages show otherwise. About 30 percent of those reaching the U.S. refugee center off Jamaica have proven their cases merit political asylum. As of June 21, only 1,370 cases of Haitians attempting in-country processing were approved for asylum, a little more than 2 percent of the 58,000 who had filled out written petitions.

Expansion of the in-country program has been halted since the U.S. Embassy withdrew personnel before U.S.-Haitian air traffic was cut Friday. The White House took new steps against Haiti's military-backed government on Wednesday by revoking the visas of most Haitians trying to get to the U.S.